Former Brown & Newirth rep awarded £63k in age discrimination case

Former sales representative at Brown & Newirth, Alan Dove, 61, has been awarded more than £63,000 following an age discrimination case.

A Watford employment tribunal ruled that Dove, from Hertfordshire, had been unfairly dismissed. Then 60, Dove, who had worked for the company for 25 years, was 10 years older than anyone else in his team. A former colleague at the company, head of sales Gareth Thomas, had been referring to Dove as “gramps” for several years.

The tribunal said that: “Mr Thomas’ view was [that it was] an affectionate term of address which he did not intend to be insulting, nor did he believe that Mr Dove found it insulting.

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“It was suggested that other members of the team had nicknames, but we have not heard any others save for the phrase which was occasionally used for Mr Thomas which was ‘gimp boy’. Mr Dove’s evidence was that he found the practise of calling him ‘gramps’ disrespectful and hurtful, particularly after it was used over a number of years.”

Director of Brown & Newirth, John Ball, dismissed Dove in April last year, following a discussion in which clients’ concerns were raised. Thomas had previously expressed in an email that a client had described Dove as “too long in the tooth,” which didn’t “work for business”.

Dove, who is not a grandparent, explained to the tribunal that he felt his clients had been engineered away. The salesman was awarded the sum to account for loss of earnings and compensation.

From a buyers point of view Brown & Newirth market themselves as British Manufacture but actually import a majority of goods from India. You only have to look at LinkedIn to see how many talented people have left this sinking ship as it seems only dirty rats remain !

What a load of rubbish, Alan was patronising and arrogant and I stopped dealing with B&N because of him. He couldn’t cope with dealing with a 25yr old company director so his mindset was extremely stuck in the past and he deserved the boot. Very sad he got a payout he should be paying his employer for keeping him in work for so long.